NGC 404 - The Ghost of Mirach

What a beautiful sight! The soft, round galaxy shared the view with the brilliant, citrusy orange Mirach. The galaxy itself had a gradual condensation toward the center. Seeing was too soft to see whether the core was stellar though. It appeared to be about 1.5 - 2 arc minutes in diameter. Mirach's blazing orange light exploded with a glow about three times the apparent diameter of the galaxy.

This was first light for the Pentax XW 10 eyepiece I received last Thursday. The view was fantastic, even with poor seeing. Diffraction patterns were beautiful to observe, and contrast was excellent. Even with Mirach in the field, NGC 404 was not a challenge to see at both 120X and 240X (with the barlow).